INTRODUCTION 15 



in the Lenox Library, New York. It was entitled Copy 

 of a Letter sent from New France, or Canada, by the Sieur 

 de Combes, a Gentleman of Poitou, to a Friend, in which 

 are described briefly the Marvels, Excellence and Wealth of 

 the Country, together with the Appearance and Manners of 

 the Inhabitants, the Glory of the French, and the Hope there 

 is of Christianizing America. This letter gives the follow- 

 ing account of Brest : 



"We desired first to go and see the Sieur de Dongeon, 

 who is governor, and resides ordinarily at Brest, the prin- 

 cipal town of the whole country, well provisioned, large 

 and strongly fortified, peopled by about fifty thousand 

 men, and furnished with all that is necessary to enrich 



good-sized town." 



When it is remembered that this letter was written in 

 the year in which Champlain founded Quebec, it will be 

 seen immediately that it is a fairy tale of the wildest sort. 

 Brest was never anything at this time but a convenient 

 harbour for fishermen; and the Sieur de Combes and the 

 Sieur de Dongeon are probably people who never ex- 

 isted. Somebody, however, must have taken the account 

 au grand serieux; for in 1638 the following account of 

 Labrador appeared in Lewes Roberts' Merchants' Map of 

 Commerce printed at London : 



" The seventh is Terra Corterialis ; on the South whereof 

 runs that famous river of Caneda, rising out of the hill 

 Hombuedo, running nine hundred miles, and found navi- 

 gable for eight hundred thereof. . . . The chiefe Towne 

 thereof is Brest, Cabomarso, and others of little note. 77 



Cabomarso is obviously a cape named by the Portu- 



